The Republican establishment always seems to be caught unawares when Democrats try to lawyer themselves into victory in elections that they lost on Election Day. GOP leaders always act like this is the first time they’ve seen what every conservative knows is going to happen.

Democrats will “find” ballots, Democrats will sue to have illegal or defective votes counted and they will do everything possible to “lose,” disqualify or destroy Republican ballots – this is not a conspiracy theory, it is history.

“Don’t get out-lawyered” was the advice former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman gave to Rick Scott. Coleman knows what he is talking about, in 2008 he lost re-election to Democrat Al Franken, but only after an eight-month recount, where Marc Elias, now managing the Democrats’ legal maneuvering in Florida represented Franken.

“He {Elias] did my race and he did Dino Rossi’s race,” Coleman said, referencing the 2004 Washington gubernatorial election where Rossi, a Republican, lost to Democrat Christine Gregoire in a recount after holding the lead on election night.

Jacob Ogles reporting for FloridaPolitics.com says Coleman recounted that early in the recount process, he wasn’t aggressively challenging Franken votes in Republican counties while the Democratic team worked aggressively everywhere.

In the end, Coleman lost to Franken by 312 votes.

In an appearance on Fox and Friends, former Congressional candidate Tim Canova, who challenged Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as an independent this year and as a Democrat two years ago, criticized Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes. Canova has previously called for Snipes removal over past legal battles.

“I warned Gov. Scott and everyone if she stayed in that position, she would only be rigging again,” Canova said.

Canova shared video from a campaign volunteer who filmed elections officials transporting ballots by private vehicle, a chain of custody issue. That video has fueled speculation online about the integrity of the Broward County vote counts.

So far, Governor Scott seems to be doing his best to make up for the failure to replace Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes after she was found by a judge to have violated Florida election law in the Canova case.

As ballots in the gubernatorial and Senate races head to a recount, Scott sued Bucher Thursday night for refusing to allow official party and campaign representatives into the ballot counting area, and having staff members determine a voter's intent without review by the county canvassing board.

Last Friday, West Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Krista Marx granted an injunction ordering Bucher to submit "over-voted" and "under-voted" absentee ballots to the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board for public review of each vote before they are counted.

Last Thursday, Scott also filed a lawsuit against Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes, alleging that her office is hiding information about the number of ballots left to be counted. Broward County Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips ordered the immediate release of voter information from Snipes, ruling in Scott's favor.

However, the Democrats have not been idle. Democrats filed a lawsuit last Friday morning asking that the deadline for local election officials to file preliminary unofficial vote totals to the state be extended past noon Saturday, a deadline dictated by Florida law.

In a sharply-worded letter to Florida Department of Law Enforcement(FDLE) Commissioner Rick Swearingen, Bondi wrote that she was "deeply troubled" that he hadn't opened an investigation.

"Your duty to investigate this matter is clear," Bondi wrote, in a letter to FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen. "I am directing you to take the necessary steps to promote public safety and to assure that our state will guarantee integrity in our election process."

FDLE has said that it had not opened an investigation because workers from the Secretary of State, who have been observing the election in Broward County, have not reported any fraud.

Bondi also wrote to Secretary of State Ken Detzner, encouraging him to look for and report any fraud. She also instructed him to report any suspicion of fraud to the Office of Statewide Prosecution, which is under her jurisdiction.

“I realize that you are not a prosecutor nor an attorney,” Bondi wrote. “I am formally requesting that you report any reasonable suspicion of criminal activity to both the statewide prosecutor and state attorney.”

Detzner’s office has said they have no evidence of fraud, even though multiple news sources have reported former Florida Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp’s claim that an employee of Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes signed an affidavit providing a sworn eye witness account of Broward Elections staff filling in blank ballots.

And now several California Republican candidates who led their races by significant margins on election night are losing their seats as Democrats produce new votes several days later.

Citing numbers reported by Breitbart, Hoft says several California Republicans who appeared to have held onto their congressional seats on Election Day saw their leads narrowed — or reversed — as late ballots continued to be counted, almost uniformly helping Democrats:

In the 10th congressional district, Democrat Josh Harder had taken a lead of over 3,000 votes over Republican incumbent Jeff Denham by Saturday evening. Denham led by a slim margin on Election Day.

In the 48th district, incumbent Republican Dana Rohrabacher saw a small Election Day lead reversed decisively, and the race was called for Democrat challenger Harley Rouda.

In the 39th and 45th districts, Republicans Young Kim and Rep. Mimi Walters narrowly clung to leads that had diminished to just over 2,000 votes in both cases, with many more ballots still to be counted.

And in the 50th district, which the Associated Press called for incumbent Republican Duncan Hunter, Democrat challenger Ammar Campa-Najjar has refused to concede, citing the possibility of late counted ballots giving him a win.

Once again, said Hoft, and we agree, the Republican party elites got suckered and had no idea Democrats would be this crooked. The party leaders should immediately resign for not anticipating this lawlessness by Democrats.